I want to be in the Spotlight!

A Road Many Travel

By Jamal Cromity

Eight years ago I left my position as a reference graduate assistant to take an opportunity with an information retrieval vendor. “Don’t stay away too long,” said my library director.  She argued that if I wanted to be a professional librarian, I needed to work in a traditional librarian position. My career was just beginning and I was young, so I didn’t understand how someone in my position could “stay away too long.” Today, I better understand and respect her advice. However, my decision to apply my skills in a non-traditional setting has provided a clearer understanding of a road many travel to advance in their career. MORE

Call for Certification and Salaries Committee Volunteers

ALA and ALA-APA President-elect Jim Rettig is seeking applications and nominations for appointments to 2008-2009 ALA-Allied Professional Association committees. Appointments take effect at the conclusion of the 2008 Annual Conference. MORE

Spotlight: Libraries—Room for More Than Reading

By Chris Gullick, Chico Enterprise-Record (California): September 22, 2007

Butte County Library Offers Email Notices for Customers

Butte County Library (accessed October 3, 2007)

A new director, increased funding and changing attitudes on the function of libraries will allow the Butte County Library System to hire new staff and provide raises for existing employees. MORE

Budget Cuts Force Shifts in Library Staffing, Hours

By Robbyn Mitchell; Karen Davidson, St. Petersburg Times (Florida), September 28, 2007

Ninety-two library pages will be laid off at the Tampa-Hillsborough County Library system. The pages will be replaced after October 1 by 15 full-time library assistants. The cuts in staff are part of a plan to save the system $1 million. MORE

Piscataway’s Library Supporters Lobby against Cuts; Mayor Says Everyone Will Feel Budget Pain

By Suleman Din, The Star-Ledger (Newark, New Jersey): September 28, 2007

With a 10 percent budget cut, Piscataway, NJ, libraries face $700,000 in expenses not covered by the budget. These expenses compound extra employee costs they did not pay before, such as health insurance, said Evelyn Hartmann, president of the library board of trustees. MORE

Library Asks for $552K Increase to Cover Staff Costs

By Tim Ashmore, The Ithaca Journal (New York): September 25, 2007

Residents Voice Support for Additions to County Budget; Police Department, Drop-in Children’s Center Funding Get Endorsements

By Tim Ashmore, The Ithaca Journal (New York): October 2, 2007

The Tompkins County Public Library of Ithaca, NY, requested $552,560 in additional funding from the Tompkins County Legislature. The money for the library, above the $2.8 million already budgeted, would be allocated in part for operational support, increases to salaries for library employees to keep up with the cost of living, one and a half additional clerks and additional funding for resources. The amount marks the largest over-target request made on opening night of department presentations. MORE

Library Cataloguers Fear Outsourcing’s Effect on Local Labor

Grand Rapid Press (Michigan): September 21, 2007

Library catalogers in Cascade Township, MI, fear that plans to outsource cataloging services would cost employees jobs and decrease the quality of work.

Library officials want to try buying precataloged, or so-called “shelf-ready” materials, to reduce a backlog of new books, DVDs and CDs they say now take 30 to 60 days to reach library shelves. MORE

I want to write about Career Advancement!

Toward a Philosophy of Management

By Honora Eskridge

What is your philosophy of management? Whether you are a new manager or experienced, odds are you have been asked this question. I most often hear it asked in interview sessions, and I am always surprised by the similarity and limitations of people’s answers. People don’t generally have a well-thought-out answer to this. Too often I hear candidates describe themselves as “hands off,” which is meant to convey that they don’t micromanage. Most recently, I heard an interview candidate say that she didn’t have a philosophy of management at all. It is one of those things people don’t really think about and never take the time to articulate. Maybe they don’t want to commit themselves, or maybe they’re afraid people won’t like their answer. The truth is, though, that everyone should have a philosophy of management—even people who have never been in a formal position of authority. MORE

I want to write about Certification!

Twelve Certified Public Library Administator Program Candidates and One Course Approved

The Certified Public Library Administrator Program (CPLA) Certification Review Committee (CRC) approved 12 new candidates and one more program course at the 2007 Fall review. CPLA now has 87 candidates representing public libraries of all sizes across the nation. MORE

I want to write about HR Practice!

A Planned Crisis: Using Disruption As Positive Change

By Paula Seeger

A recent article in the Harvard Business School publication Working Knowledge for Business Leaders discussed the difficulty of finding sources of innovation. In “Jumpstarting Innovation: Using Disruption to Your Advantage,” Professor Lynda Applegate reports that disruptive change can provide fertile ground for innovation. Even though she speaks to the business community, libraries can use this same premise to discover innovation during disruptions. This article discusses two situations that call for innovative solutions and offers suggestions for using disruption as a positive source of ideas. MORE

I want to write about Recruitment!

Mentoring 101: Mentoring from Both Sides

By Michelle McKinney and Angela Gooden

Mentoring is an important component of professional development that occurs formally and informally throughout one’s career. Michelle McKinney, a new librarian, was matched with seasoned librarian, Angela Gooden, through the University of Cincinnati’s (UC) Mentor Program. They discuss the mentoring relationship from both perspectives: benefits of mentoring, ideal characteristics of mentors and mentees and finding a mentor. As librarians of color, they also discuss the role mentoring plays in the recruitment, advancement and retention of ethnic librarians. MORE

I want to write about Salaries and Pay Equity!

Get a Free Copy of an ALA-APA Library Salary Survey—For Analyzing the Data

ALA-APA will give up to five people/institutions a free copy of the 2007 ALA-APA Salary Survey—Librarian: Public and Academic ($70 value) or 2007 ALA-APA Salary Survey—Non-MLS: Public and Academic ($100 value) in exchange for analyzing data and submitting a research paper on a topic of national interest.

The Librarian Salary Survey has been published since 1982 and covers six positions. The Non-MLS Salary Survey has been published since 2006 and covers more than 60 positions that do not require an American Library Association-accredited Masters Degree in Library Science. The 2007 Non-MLS Salary Survey also reports salaries for staff employed as librarians but who do not have ALA-accredited Master’s Degrees in Library Science. MORE

I want to write about Statistics!

How Do Your Salaries Measure Up?

Consult ALA-APA Library Services Data Tools for credible, industry-specific information for your state and region. MORE

I want to write about Support Staff!

Surviving Reorganization and Landing on Your Feet

By Cheryl Teresi

Change is good until it happens to you. When our library system was restructured a year ago, many employees saw the changes as unfair, since not every employee was affected equally. Branch managers were relocated; positions and departments were combined or eliminated. Not only did employees find the new system unfair, they could not understand how restructuring would improve our efficiency. After all, we were voted one of the top libraries in the country for our population: what needed to be fixed? MORE

I want to write about Work/Life!

Burnout in Academic Libraries

By Julia Huprich

Employee burnout is not a new idea; employees have been experiencing its effects since the organized workplace has existed. Psychologists had long tried to describe the process by which engaged, caring helpers became irritated, unproductive staff. Caputo reports that the phrase “burnout” was first used by Freudenberger in an article published in 1974 which introduced the term as summarizing “the unrelenting pursuit of impossible goals with insufficient resources [which] result[s] in the transformation of committed, caring professionals into exhausted, uncaring drones” (Caputo 1991, 3). MORE